COURSE PURPOSE, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES

Course Rationale and Goals:

This course is a study of American electoral politics. It will occur during the election campaigns of 2008. I hope that the course sparks or intensifies your interest in elections and that you develop the knowledge, research capabilities, and skills necessary to analyze and interpret them. In addition to developing a general knowledge of the electoral process I hope that the course encourages you to become sophisticated consumers of polling information and campaign messages.

Specific Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course students should be able to:

 

	Describe the rules of the game with regard to American electoral politics
	Analyze the variables that contribute to individual voting decisions
	Analyze the variables that contribute to the outcomes of elections.
	Critically analyze media messages concerning election campaigns
	Understand and take positions on issues concerning relationships between elections and democracy.
	Gather information (data) necessary to execute a case study of a specific election. The sources of the data will include the World Wide Web, data bases such as Lexis/Nexis and the library.
	Write a thorough report of a case study of an election.